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. . Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2016 06:25:05 -0500 From: Laura Carlson <[log in to unmask]> To: webdev <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [webdev] Web Design Update: April 7 +++ WEB DESIGN UPDATE. - Volume 14, Issue 41, April 7, 2016. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development. ++ISSUE 41 CONTENTS. SECTION ONE: New references. What's new at the Web Design Reference site? http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/ New links in these categories: 01: ACCESSIBILITY. 02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. 03: COLOR. 04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 05: EVENTS. 06: HTML5. 07: NAVIGATION. 08: TOOLS. 09: USABILITY. 10: XML. SECTION TWO: 11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? [Contents ends.] ++ SECTION ONE: New references. +01: ACCESSIBILITY. Using Keyboard-Only Navigation, for Web Accessibility By Joseph C. Dolson. "Blind and low-vision users, as well as those with mobility disabilities, rely on their keyboards - not a mouse - to navigate websites. Online forms are keyboard 'traps' when they don't allow a user to tab through it without completing a field. That is not the case with Newegg's checkout form, which properly allows users to tab through it, and ultimately return to the browser bar, without completing a field..." http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/ 98316-Using-Keyboard-only-Navigation-for-Web-Accessibility The Myth of the Keyboard-Only User By Joseph C. Dolson. "...Situational or temporary accessibility problems are still problems, and should be considered of equal importance to any permanent problem." https://www.joedolson.com/2016/03/myth-keyboard-user/ Should WCAG.NEXT Require All Functionality Operable With a Mouse/Pointer (in Addition to Keyboard) By David MacDonald. "I inadvertantly created quite a dust up last week when I asked whether our current personas for sighted keyboard only users are overly coarse and simplistic..." http://davidmacd.com/blog/ should-WCAG-require-all-functionality-by-mouse.html 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) By Rakesh Paladugula. "Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such..." http://www.maxability.co.in/2016/03/1-2-2-captions-prerecorded/ Testing With the NVDA Screen Reader By Jonathan Whiting. "This is a piece about how I configure and use NVDA..." http://webaim.org/blog/testing-with-the-nvda-screen-reader/ LMS Accessibility - Is ATAG the Answer? By Scott Hollier. "The evolution of Learning Management Systems (LMS) has been a fascinating one..." http://www.accessiq.org/news/w3c-column/ 2016/04/lms-accessibility-is-atag-the-answer Be Wary of Accessibility Guarantees from Vendors By Adrian Roselli. "In my ~20 years of responding to RFPs/RFQs, once organizations started to realize the value of accessibility (or fear of lawsuits), I saw more and more requests include a note on accessibility. In most cases this was just a single line item among many, often with nothing more than a checkbox: 'Is your solution Section 508 compliant?'..." http://adrianroselli.com/2016/03/ be-wary-of-accessibility-guarantees-from-vendors.html 15 Things to Know About Twitter's Alternative Text for Images By Deborah Edwards-Onoro. "...Like many other Twitter users, I'm thrilled to have the option to add alternative text to images in Twitter. It makes my favorite social media channel even better. A more accessible product means more people can enjoy Twitter. That's a win-win for everyone! And I can't wait for it to be released for the web version as well as other Twitter third-party apps." https://www.lireo.com/15-things-to-know-twitter-alternative-text-images/ What You Should Know About Accessibility + SEO, Part I: An Intro By Laura Lippay. "...It's a challenge many of us don't think about every day, but some of what we do in SEO can affect the experience that people with visual impairments have when visiting a page..." https://moz.com/blog/accessibility-seo-1 Power Tool Retailer Hammers Law Firm Behind ADA Web Accessibility Suits By Alexis Kramer. "Over 50 complaints have been filed since the beginning of 2015 against well-known retailers for allegedly failing to make their websites accessible to the blind..." http://www.bna.com/power-tool-retailer-b57982069062/ +02: CASCADING STYLE SHEETS. CSS Containment By Michael Scharnagl. "If you build simple sites without tons of DOM nodes and widgets you probably don't have to care about CSS containment. On the other hand, if you build more complex sites CSS containment will help to optimize the performance. It is also a good idea to set contain: strict; for third-party widgets to protect the performance of your site." https://justmarkup.com/log/2016/04/css-containment/ +03: COLOR. Color Safe: Build Accessible Color Palettes Based on WCAG Guidelines By Sarah Gooding. "...Color Safe is a handy web app that helps designers select color combinations that will meet WCAG 2.0 guidelines for those with different visual capabilities..." http://wptavern.com/ color-safe-build-accessible-color-palettes-based-on-wcag-guidelines Why Your Gray Text Should Never Exceed 46% Brightness By UX Movement. "The color gray comes in many different shades. You can find them on different elements across most sites. Dark gray is often used for headings and body text. Light gray is often used for metadata, labels, and descriptions. But the shade that’s abused the most is light gray." http://uxmovement.com/content/ why-your-gray-text-should-never-exceed-46-brightness/ +04: EVALUATION & TESTING. 6 Reasons Not to Test with Users (and Why to Test Anyway) By Jess Hutton. "...In this article, we'll respond to all of these objections, and give UX practitioners the ammunition they need to convince any doubters that usability testing is, in fact, right for every project..." http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/ 6-reasons-not-to-test-with-users-and-why-to-test-anyway/ 5 Reasons Why Your First User Research Activity Should be a Usability Test By David Travis. "A usability test is the wrong research method when you want to discover if there's a real user need for your product; when you want to understand the environment where your system is used; and when you want to find out how people use your product in their daily lives. So why do I almost always recommend a usability test as a team's first user research activity?" http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/ your-first-user-research-activity.html +05: EVENTS. Accessibility Training June 14-15, 2016. Logan, Utah, U.S.A. http://webaim.org/training/ +06: HTML5. Custom Element Semantics By Steve Faulkner. "The following content written by me, was until recently a part of the W3C Custom Elements specification, but was removed/substantially re-written when a new editor took over. As we think, in the form represented here, it's a useful introduction to custom element semantics, we have re-published it..." https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2016/04/custom-element-semantics/ +07: NAVIGATION. The Hamburger Menu and the Zombie Apocalypse By Gerry McGovern. "Print is dead but its zombies have come back to ruin our lives with hamburger menus: grey, meaningless text and huge, meaningless images. Opening soon in a theatre of the absurd near you: 'Revenge of the Brochureware Designers' and 'Nightmare on PDF Street: The Sequel.'" http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/ hamburger-menu-and-zombie-apocalypse +08: TOOLS. Introducing Outline Audit By Hugo Giraudel. "We recently had some minor issues in a project where the final document outline on some pages was somewhat broken. I investigated a little, and ended up building a tiny tool to audit the document outline. More on that in a bit, but first..." http://dev.edenspiekermann.com/2016/03/29/introducing-outline-audit/ +09: USABILITY. Consider Offboarding - Letting Users Leave In Peace By Andres Cwervo. "Let's start with a story: a tragic experience made a little worse by careless design..." https://medium.com/@acuervo/ consider-offboarding-letting-users-leave-in-peace-cdd02501d35f +10: XML. A Working SVG Workflow for Accessible Icons By Hugo Giraudel. (Hat tip to Jennifer Sutton) "It has been commonly admitted that using fonts for icons is a bad practice. It’s bad for rendering (sizing, positioning, etc.), it has weird failures (proxy browsers, CORS, etc.), it conveys poor semantics, can hurt accessibility, and the list goes on..." http://www.sitepoint.com/a-working-svg-workflow-for-accessible-icons/ [Section one ends.] ++ SECTION TWO: +11: What Can You Find at the Web Design Reference Site? Accessibility Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/accessibility.html Association Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/associations.html Book Listings. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/books.html Cascading Style Sheets Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html Color Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/color.html Drupal Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/drupal.html Evaluation & Testing Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/testing.html Event Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/events.html HTML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/html.html Information Architecture Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/architecture.html JavaScript Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/javascript.html Miscellaneous Web Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/misc.html Navigation Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/navigation.html PHP Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/php.html Sites & Blogs Listing. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/sites.html Standards, Guidelines & Pattern Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/standards.html Tool Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/tools.html Typography Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/type.html Usability Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/usability.html XML Information. http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/xml.html [Section two ends.] ++END NOTES. + SUBSCRIPTION INFO. WEB DESIGN UPDATE is available by subscription. For information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe please visit: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html The Web Design Reference Site also has a RSS 2.0 feed for site updates. + TEXT EMAIL NEWSLETTER (TEN). As a navigation aid for screen readers we do our best to conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) guidelines. Please let me know if there is anything else we can do to make navigation easier. For TEN guideline information please visit: http://www.headstar.com/ten + SIGN OFF. Until next time, Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN U.S.A. 55812-3009 mailto:[log in to unmask] [Issue ends.] --